A word of praise for India from Italy: Milan-based businessman says all contacts from his India trip traced

NEW DELHI: The way India and its states are handling the Covid-19 spread by tracing all potential cases has received some extraordinary praise from an Italian businessman, Thierry Gandolfo, who was in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore last month scouting for Indian suppliers for automotive parts.
He was among the last Italians to board a flight to Milan from New Delhi on February 28, when the outbreak was declared a pandemic.

Gandolfo, who spent more than a week visiting over eight foundries and factories in and around Coimbatore said, "Italy right now looks like it did right after the World War. But I am amazed how the local government in India has traced my footprints for the entire trip, and contacted everyone I met between February 20 and February 27. They have also, through them, kept track of how I am doing..If I had contracted the infection...There have been followups too, which is why it is admirable," he told ET, over the phone.

Gandolfo lavished praised on the Tamil Nadu government on social media too, "..They did a reverse study of my entire trip..located everyone I met and have been tracking their health developments..With such an ability to act with prevention and local competence, we could have saved probably so many lives in Italy," he said.

Italy has been the worst affected by the COVID-19 and has reported the highest death toll in excess of 9, 000 deaths.

In his eight days in India, Gandolfo, according to health department officials, had come in touch with over 51 people, all of whom are getting traced by the TN Health department. Gandolfo said he was lucky to have not contracted the virus yet, and has kept his Indian contacts informed about his health.

Elangovan Gurunatha Pillai, an exporter of hydraulics castings for over 35 years, and the owner of GCS Pvt Ltd in Coimbatore who was Gandolfo's host during his trip, confirmed that health officials got in touch with him some days ago and sought details of every person he had met.

"From where the hotel he stayed to the drivers he hired, everyone was contacted..There was no scare when he was here, but as soon as he left, we heard about a group of Italians being quarantined in Jaipur. I was particularly concerned because I am diabetic, and I had also travelled to visit my daughter in Chennai for her birthday on February 29."

Pillai said he has been in touch with Gandalfo enquiring about his health. "After he landed he sounded as if he was slightly unwell, but it later turned out to be just exhaustion. We were relieved."

Gandolfo said when he arrived in Coimbatore, Italy was still coming to terms with the seriousness of Covid-19. "Some of the politicians were actually talking about it as if it were some flu.I flew to India without any restrictions. The restrictions came up only when I was preparing for my trip home," he said.

"On the flight back to Europe, however, the passengers were extremely serious. The two people sitting next to me did not leave their masks even for a minute, they didn't even eat all through the nine-hour flight. They used sanitizer some 20 times during the flight. There was overall panic."

Social distancing, isolation and tracing of contacts are key here, and that this was the time for India to "obey" the experts, he said, adding, "When I arrived on February 29 at 6:30 pm at the Melphensa airport in Milan, there was just four incoming flights from overseas..It was a deserted airport. The red cross people were there for our medical checks. But outside, the country was not still under total lockdown."

"In Italy the heaviest criticism the government is facing is that though it signed the sanitary emergency on January 31, it announced a full lockdown only on March 8. The question everyone is asking here is why was the delay in announcing the lockdown," he said, adding that public events such as football matches have led to an escalation of cases in Italy’s worst-affected province, Bergamo.

Responding to the praise, Tamil Nadu health secretary Beela Rajesh said the state government had started screening international passengers right from February 15. "We had teams doing it so that we at least had a database. We also got the entire database from the Immigration of the passengers with Tamil Nadu residency passport. We cross-verified and send teams to people wherever the contacts were..The tracking team in the state has been meticulously following the "primary to secondary to tertiary contacts and quarantining them."

The number of positive cases in Tamil Nadu has gone up to 35, including one dead and one who has recovered. The state has so far placed 15,800 passengers under home quarantine for 28 days and 109 symptomatic passengers from highly-affected countries are being quarantined in quarantine facilities near airport, while 284 are under hospital isolation.

Political commentator Sumanth C Raman, said the Tamil Nadu government had largely done a good job of handling the crisis, but hasn't really tested as many patients as it should have.

"They have managed to quell the panic and show that action is being taken. They have managed to carry out disinfection.. The CM has also addressed people. Only that they are not testing enough. Also, Tamil Nadu waited for whole 36 hours before announcing lockdown, which led to crowds at moffusil bus stands. That also is understandable because it was felt that people needed to get back to their homes."

Gandolfo's company Intent in Turin has an Indian firm as partner, New Delhi Delhi-based Anantmayraj, whose officials were helping him formulate an Indian strategy during this period, mainly looking at selecting companies that manufacture, assemble automotive products.

Gandolfo's visit was a pre-planned one, said Mayank Raj Mohan, managing director of Anantmayraj.

"There is a genuine interest within the international business community to source more automotive parts from India... India not only produces excellent products but our strength lies in our engineers. The thoroughness shown by our health officials reinforces my stand that the presence of strong governmental support backs our corporates," he said, adding that several other visits by foreign investors in the sector have been cancelled for now.